EP 0 891 491 A discloses a fluid pressure amplifier which includes a pipe having a fluid inlet and a fluid outlet and containing an array of holes. A chamber is formed around the pipe, surrounding the holes, with an obturator ring surrounding the pipe and resiliently-movable in the chamber to co-operate with an annular exhaust aperture surrounding the pipe which can be sealed by the ring. Fluid pressure in the pipe causes the ring to oscillate between conditions which alternately permit and prevent fluid from leaving the chamber through the exhaust aperture, causing a pulsed pressure increase in the fluid leaving the fluid outlet.
The fluid pressure amplifier can be used to increase the outlet pressure of fluid in a pipe where the inlet pressure is low, for example where the pipe is submerged in a river or connected to another low-pressure fluid source. Such an amplifier may be used in various situations, so that the pressure of the fluid source may vary and the required outlet pressure and/or volume may change.
The present invention seeks to provide a new and inventive form of fluid pressure amplifier which is compact, inexpensive, and is capable of providing significantly improved efficiency over a greater range of operating conditions.